TNAG-0356-FCO40-392-Extension-of-European-Convention-on-Human-Rights-to-Hong-Kon-1973 — Page 18

CONFIDENTIAL

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In the light of the Secretary of State's savingram No. 1709 of the 30th October, 1954 and of what you say in paragraph 8 of your letter, I agree that if the Convention were to be extended to Hong Kong we can also accept Articles 1 and 2 of the (First) Protocol. Article 3 is, of course, still quite unacceptable. The Fourth Protocol could be extended to Hong Kong without difficulty.

As regards the two

optional provisions, the question of acceptance only arises if the Convention is to be applied to Hong Kong. Since I believe that this by itself would raise unjustifiable risks at the present time, it folows that ! I could not accept the added risks inevitably involved

in the right of individual petition or compulsory jurisdiction of the courts. There is little question that a number of our cranks and politicians would take ¡ immediate advantage of the right of petition.

To sum up: so far as

Hong Kong law and practice go we could accept the application to us of the Convention and the four Protocols, except Article 3 of the (First) Protocol. We should, however, in view of the Emergency (Deportation and Detention) Regulations, 1962 be vulnerable to challenge under Articles 5 and 15 of the Convention. So long as the Chinese People's Government persists in its refusal to accept criminal deportees, I do not believe that we can, in the interests of public security, afford to risk that challenge and a consequent abandonment of the power to detain in special circumstances. If external pressure were to lead us to accede to the Convention and accept the risk of challenge, we must, in my opinion, clearly resist increasing that risk by acceptance of the two optional provisions. It is the special position of Hong Kong in relation to China that produces this situation and, even if the Chinese People's Government showed a willingness to change its ground and take back deportees, there can be no guarantee that it would not revert to its present stand without notice

Yours ever

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